Welcome back, Confectionery Stallers, just in time for the official Confectionery Stall preview of the end of the 2011 Indian tour of England. The final match in a damply curious ODI series will bring the curtain of mercy down on one of the most unsuccessful tours ever to fail to grace these shores. It might be a good game, it might not be, and either side could win it and/or lose it. Duckworth-Lewis, in fine form after their spectacular win at Lord’s, cannot be ruled out. No one will mind very much either way, I imagine. The schedule of the English international summer is specifically designed to maximise the chances of a prolonged anti-climax, and the weather has chirped in this year to assist the achieving of this oddly conceived goal.

On then to the official Confectionery Stall review of the 2011 Indian tour of England.

At the start of the summer, there had been rich anticipation for a titanic showdown between two of Test cricket’s leading forces. Titanic showdowns, however, as early-20th-century maritime historians will vociferously testify, can end with something that was widely lauded as indestructible and magnificent sinking rapidly and disastrously. The good ship India rammed repeatedly into Iceberg England, and the rest is now statistically alarming history that will be sifted over by curious students in decades to come. (If there are any curious students of Test cricket in decades to come.)

Back in April, as India briefly celebrated their iconic triumph in Mumbai before looking at their fixture schedules and thinking that they had better get some kip whilst they had the chance, and England recuperated from their Ashes megavictory and their barking-mad World Cup campaign, some mesmerising contests loomed – Zaheer against England’s batting machine; Sehwag against England’s demon swing attack; Tendulkar versus Statistical History.

The first flickered tantalisingly on the first day at Lord’s before Zaheer’s not overwhelmingly well-honed body rebelled. The second began (a) too late, as injury ruled out the Evel Knievel Of Opening The Batting from the first two Tests, and (b) too early, as he rushed back with insufficient preparation to face brilliant, in-form swing bowlers in swingy conditions. I am sure even Albert Einstein after a prolonged break from science needed to ease himself back into things with some basic physics - a couple of frames of snooker, at least, or juggling some tomatoes – before launching into the serious quantum stuff. The third saw Statistical History fighting a brave rearguard against the Little Master (whilst taking its eye off the majestic Dravid, allowing him to put on one of the finest displays of batsmanship in a losing cause and become only the second player after Bradman to twice score three centuries in a series in England).

India were underprepared, knackered and unlucky, but their response to their misfortunes is unlikely to have the world’s poets wielding their quills in excitement, ready to poet out some stirring tales of steadfast heroism in the face of adversity.

Consequently, as a contest it has been strange and unsatisfying, like eating a plate of high-quality filet steak lathered in a once-delicious lemon mousse that had been left out of the fridge for a couple of weeks. For England, the Test series was unremittingly glorious. Players reached or maintained peaks that a year ago had seemed inconceivable. They were ruthless, dazzling, thrilling. Those are three adjectives that have not always been applicable to English cricket over the last 30 years. They have slap-hammered their opponents for seven innings victories in 14 Tests over 12 months – one more than England managed in 211 Tests over 20 years in the 1980s and 1990s. England have averaged 59 runs per wicket with the bat in 2011 – the best year ever for England batting, and the best by any team that has played more than six Tests in a year. Their pace bowlers have collectively averaged 24 this year – the second-best such figure by England since 1979, behind 2000, when Gough, Caddick, Cork and White eviscerated the hapless West Indians.

England had an almost supernaturally stellar Test summer, to follow a similarly successful winter, and ascended to the official top of the Test rankings with ease. Reaching summits is often considered tricky in mountaineering circles (I am reliably informed). England scaled the ICC Rankings Peak in the the manner of Hillary and Tensing unicycling the last few hundred metres up Mount Everest whilst juggling apples and singing Viking drinking songs.

It is hard to know exactly how good this England team is currently and can become in the future – they have had a happy knack of playing opponents who are in transition, meltdown or need of a holiday, and have exploited weakness, misfortune and fatigue with merciless power and precision. A winter in various parts of Asia will give further evidence, and next summer’s annoyingly brief showdown with South Africa could prove to be the crucial exhibit.

EXTRAS
Lancashire clinched a staggering triumph in the County Championship, with two bone-jangling late victories in their final two matches. Last time Lancashire won the championship outright, in 1934, it heralded a 19-year spell in which Britain fought a World War, saw a king abdicate, and presided over the collapse of its empire, and in which, more importantly, England failed to win the Ashes. So whilst this extraordinary and long-overdue triumph will be rightly celebrated across Lancashire, the rest of the country and the government may be understandably more muted in its response.

When I was a cricket-obsessed boy, I patiently endured a four-year period from 1986 to 1989 when my country won three Tests out of 40. Fortunately, two of those wins were in one Ashes series, so the late ‘80s seldom get the credit they deserve as the absolute nadir of English cricket history. It was often said at the time that county cricket was not producing Test-quality cricketers. This was not entirely true. It was producing them, but they were mostly playing for England’s opponents. County cricket is still producing Test-quality cricketers, and England’s opponents, too busy to allow their players be properly schooled in English conditions, as they once were, are suffering the consequences, trying to learn on the hoof in the Test arena, like schoolchildren trying to cram in some desperate post-last-minute revision after a crucial exam has already started.

Following the trial of a pink ball in a County Championship game, the ICC has announced that in the forthcoming Sheffield Shield season in Australia, umpires’ index fingers will be painted fluorescent green, and topped with a flashing light. “We want to make the moment of dismissal a more spectator-friendly experience,” explained the secretary of the ICC Tinkering Around Committee. A further proposal under consideration is forcing batsmen’s helmets to be coated in a bronze casing, to ensure that a bowler clonking a batsman on the noggin with a bouncer makes the metal clang loud and amusing enough to prevent the crowd drifting off and thinking about gardening.

Apologies for my lengthy absence, which was caused by a range of factors: (1) spending a month telling jokes at the Edinburgh Festival; (2) taking my wife and children on holiday to compensate for spending a month away from home at the Edinburgh Festival; (3) trying to explain the difference between cricket and football to my two-year-old son; (4) Statsguru asking me for some time apart to think about where our relationship is going; and (5) a rest and recuperation period advised by my doctor to help adjust psychologically to the fact that England are now officially the universe’s leading Test Match cricket team, a state of affairs for which cricket supporters in my age bracket in this country have not been adequately conditioned. In fact, medical staff at cricket grounds have reported cricket fans complaining of a range of previously unimaginable ailments, including disbelief, delirium, smugness, an unshakeable suspicion that it is all an elaborate trick, terror that England’s ascent to the summit of the world’s greatest sport is an unarguable sign of impending apocalypse (it is all in The Book Of Revelations, if you read it backwards in John Arlott’s accent), and in several cases “feeling disconcertingly Australian”.

Andy Zaltzman is a stand-up comedian, a regular on the BBC Radio 4, and a writer

vel-kum back zaltzman kungs. if 'tweren't for (increasingly sporadic) episodes of da bugle, serious withdrawal symptoms would've left me mentally debilitated (or at least more so than i generally am). the only ray of sunshine for me in the recent past, cricketing-wise, has been pakistan's vite-vosh of cricketing colossi zimbabwe.

looking forward to more-frequent conf-stall posts, at least until the next new bugle episode (which is at least three weeks away :(

fanedlive
on September 26, 2011, 13:55 GMT

:)
... or billy bowden with a crooked fluorescent middle finger, taking umbrage at being mistaken for saimoon tufail -- or some similarly named former icc umpire of the year(s)

.

fanedlive
on September 26, 2011, 13:54 GMT

:)
... or billy bowden with a crooked fluorescent middle finger, taking umbrage at being mistaken for saimoon tufail -- or some similarly named former icc umpire of the year(s)

.

fanedlive
on September 24, 2011, 10:33 GMT

yesterday ravi bopara won man of the match for his bowling. wasn't sure if i was reading the match report or this blog.

fanedlive
on September 23, 2011, 23:08 GMT

@sanjiv kumar -- I'd like to paraphrase your comment, if I may: Waaah! India lost and it's not fair! Waaah!

fanedlive
on September 22, 2011, 11:57 GMT

hahaha
well einstein had to juggle tomatoes...looks like ur going to have to write free verse poetry too before you can write an article funny enough to be compared with your previous ones...
but even your weak material has many brilliant moments..
the last paragraph is as good as any you have written...
relationship with statguru and england fans' ailments hahahhahahahahahhahaha

fanedlive
on September 20, 2011, 13:21 GMT

Following the trial of a pink ball in a County Championship game, the ICC has announced that in the forthcoming Sheffield Shield season in Australia, umpires’ index fingers will be painted fluorescent green, and topped with a flashing light. “We want to make the moment of dismissal a more spectator-friendly experience,” explained the secretary of the ICC Tinkering Around Committee. A further proposal under consideration is forcing batsmen’s helmets to be coated in a bronze casing, to ensure that a bowler clonking a batsman on the noggin with a bouncer makes the metal clang loud and amusing enough ...

Hahaha ... I have been laughing for last 10 minutes ... the genious is not in these words ... but the timing and placement of these words in this article ... hahaha ... Simon Taufel with a croked florecent finger ... LOL

fanedlive
on September 19, 2011, 17:01 GMT

Hi Andy, Missed your charming humour over the latter half of the series.
Allow me to make a point about one factor for Indian cricket to address.
There was, sometime around the turn of the millenium, I think, a revelation experienced by someone, somewhere in the the cricketing world. It was that cricket is a sport and that, by and large, sport is best undertaken by atheletes., and that cricketing skill is best maximised when it exists in conjunction with levels of fitness that are considered essential in other sporting endevours. The days of flabby blokes waddling round a cricket field were over.
But no one told India.
On this tour only Dravid and Ishant Sharma of the India team could be considered free of the wobble-factor. Any rebuilding of the India team after their woeful summer in England must be accompanied by an acknowledgement that no team resembling a weight-watchers convention is likely to rule the roost in world cricket.
Will Duncan Fletcher break the news?

fanedlive
on September 18, 2011, 16:36 GMT

welcome back sir ...me and my room mate missed you a lot ...well first thing that i would like to apprise is that this particular series was not played in full cricketing spirit ...atleast the commentators never followed it ..as if they lost this word from their dictionary .Mr. nasser hussain comment on indian fielders is ridicoulous and disgracing ..for any indian its a slap on their faces ..secondly indian team never looked a unit a settled team ..they looked like jhoom cultivators ..moving from one place to the other ..thirdly dhoni lost some crucial tosses that could have turned the match on its head ..lastly it is not fair to call england as rhe best side in the world ..they still have to prove themselves in the subcontinent ...

fanedlive
on September 18, 2011, 10:31 GMT

broad played a key role in the whitewash of the Indian team in the test series and D/L played a key role in the whitewash of the Indian team in the one day series....there can't be a better series for the mediocre English team

fanedlive
on September 26, 2011, 14:15 GMT

vel-kum back zaltzman kungs. if 'tweren't for (increasingly sporadic) episodes of da bugle, serious withdrawal symptoms would've left me mentally debilitated (or at least more so than i generally am). the only ray of sunshine for me in the recent past, cricketing-wise, has been pakistan's vite-vosh of cricketing colossi zimbabwe.

looking forward to more-frequent conf-stall posts, at least until the next new bugle episode (which is at least three weeks away :(

fanedlive
on September 26, 2011, 13:55 GMT

:)
... or billy bowden with a crooked fluorescent middle finger, taking umbrage at being mistaken for saimoon tufail -- or some similarly named former icc umpire of the year(s)

.

fanedlive
on September 26, 2011, 13:54 GMT

:)
... or billy bowden with a crooked fluorescent middle finger, taking umbrage at being mistaken for saimoon tufail -- or some similarly named former icc umpire of the year(s)

.

fanedlive
on September 24, 2011, 10:33 GMT

yesterday ravi bopara won man of the match for his bowling. wasn't sure if i was reading the match report or this blog.

fanedlive
on September 23, 2011, 23:08 GMT

@sanjiv kumar -- I'd like to paraphrase your comment, if I may: Waaah! India lost and it's not fair! Waaah!

fanedlive
on September 22, 2011, 11:57 GMT

hahaha
well einstein had to juggle tomatoes...looks like ur going to have to write free verse poetry too before you can write an article funny enough to be compared with your previous ones...
but even your weak material has many brilliant moments..
the last paragraph is as good as any you have written...
relationship with statguru and england fans' ailments hahahhahahahahahhahaha

fanedlive
on September 20, 2011, 13:21 GMT

Following the trial of a pink ball in a County Championship game, the ICC has announced that in the forthcoming Sheffield Shield season in Australia, umpires’ index fingers will be painted fluorescent green, and topped with a flashing light. “We want to make the moment of dismissal a more spectator-friendly experience,” explained the secretary of the ICC Tinkering Around Committee. A further proposal under consideration is forcing batsmen’s helmets to be coated in a bronze casing, to ensure that a bowler clonking a batsman on the noggin with a bouncer makes the metal clang loud and amusing enough ...

Hahaha ... I have been laughing for last 10 minutes ... the genious is not in these words ... but the timing and placement of these words in this article ... hahaha ... Simon Taufel with a croked florecent finger ... LOL

fanedlive
on September 19, 2011, 17:01 GMT

Hi Andy, Missed your charming humour over the latter half of the series.
Allow me to make a point about one factor for Indian cricket to address.
There was, sometime around the turn of the millenium, I think, a revelation experienced by someone, somewhere in the the cricketing world. It was that cricket is a sport and that, by and large, sport is best undertaken by atheletes., and that cricketing skill is best maximised when it exists in conjunction with levels of fitness that are considered essential in other sporting endevours. The days of flabby blokes waddling round a cricket field were over.
But no one told India.
On this tour only Dravid and Ishant Sharma of the India team could be considered free of the wobble-factor. Any rebuilding of the India team after their woeful summer in England must be accompanied by an acknowledgement that no team resembling a weight-watchers convention is likely to rule the roost in world cricket.
Will Duncan Fletcher break the news?

fanedlive
on September 18, 2011, 16:36 GMT

welcome back sir ...me and my room mate missed you a lot ...well first thing that i would like to apprise is that this particular series was not played in full cricketing spirit ...atleast the commentators never followed it ..as if they lost this word from their dictionary .Mr. nasser hussain comment on indian fielders is ridicoulous and disgracing ..for any indian its a slap on their faces ..secondly indian team never looked a unit a settled team ..they looked like jhoom cultivators ..moving from one place to the other ..thirdly dhoni lost some crucial tosses that could have turned the match on its head ..lastly it is not fair to call england as rhe best side in the world ..they still have to prove themselves in the subcontinent ...

fanedlive
on September 18, 2011, 10:31 GMT

broad played a key role in the whitewash of the Indian team in the test series and D/L played a key role in the whitewash of the Indian team in the one day series....there can't be a better series for the mediocre English team

fanedlive
on September 17, 2011, 5:56 GMT

It is a very wierd sensation being an English supporter at the moment. After a lifetime of watching England either lose abysmally, cock up winning situations or just squeak home thanks to sone virtuoso performance by an individual, we now have a team that never seems to lose its nerve and presses home its advantages ruthlessly. "Feeling disconcertingly Australian" sums it up perfectly.

fanedlive
on September 17, 2011, 5:27 GMT

"At the start of the summer, there had been rich anticipation for a titanic showdown between two of Test cricket’s leading forces. Titanic showdowns, however, as early-20th-century maritime historians will vociferously testify, can end with something that was widely lauded as indestructible and magnificent sinking rapidly and disastrously." Sheer Genius mate

fanedlive
on September 17, 2011, 0:53 GMT

While the English media continue to sing unbelievable praises for this England team, it takes a comic genius to aptly summarise what we all know to be true despite their excellent home summer-

"It is hard to know exactly how good this England team is currently and can become in the future – they have had a happy knack of playing opponents who are in transition, meltdown or need of a holiday, and have exploited weakness, misfortune and fatigue with merciless power and precision. A winter in various parts of Asia will give further evidence, and next summer’s annoyingly brief showdown with South Africa could prove to be the crucial exhibit"

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 22:30 GMT

Ridiculous to assert that England are the best team in the universe. The entire universe has not been mapped yet.

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 16:07 GMT

Welcome back Andy after the hiatus.. your articles would have provided some entertainment in an otherwise listless and boring series..

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 14:00 GMT

I'm a middle aged, English test cricket fan. I'm also a (very proud) Lancastrian; imagine my sense of disorientation and confusion today! Over the last year I've seen England not just beat the Aussies but thrash them in their own back yard, go onto thrash India's superstars in the process of taking their test cricket crown and now Lancashire have won the County Championship. Am I dreaming has the last year really happened? Of course, being English my natural sense of pessimism tells me this is probably the peak of my cricket following career and it'll be all down hill from here!

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 13:15 GMT

Welcome back Andy and hope you are in pink of health and mind with England at the top. Next time you go for sustained breaks as this one, do tell us ETA for we missed the best thing of this "English summer" that the effect of progressive mismatches were not captured through your pen. Much though the stiff-lipped experts commented, looked like the fun slipping out of the fingures much the same way the ball spun out of yours in the cow-corner in those days of 80s.....still wonder how you would have covered that Sehwag golden duck when one third of population of the world and their captain was clutching at the only straw of Veeru magic ...when all was not yet lost but looked likely...He comes, swings his bat and goes even before you could spell ANDY.....and Suresh Raina and RP SIngh and a lot more....SUre that the jokes you cracked at Edinburgh festival was good for money else scots would not let you go easlily

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 12:00 GMT

Oh Andy! The concept of physicists 'limbering up' with a "couple of frames of snooker" or "juggling some tomatoes" is utter genius. Welcome back Sir.

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 11:46 GMT

India lost fair n square. The games with D/L Method could have gone either way. Looking at india's record i dont think a team deserve to be called champions when the only matches they will are the ones played on their home ground.

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 11:36 GMT

"a rest and recuperation period advised by my doctor to help adjust psychologically to the fact that England are now officially the universe’s leading Test Match cricket team"-Andy, I understand that the Bzergs of the planet Bleen have never lost a game of test cricket, and must be considered a contender for the title of best team. Characteristically, Indian fans have refused to recognise this feat on the grounds that the Bzergs have never played a series in India.

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 11:14 GMT

Hallelujah! That was a particularly dry month and i believe i speak on behalf of all Cricinfo readers when i say that cricket is glad for the return of your original outlooks on events that ocurred or almost ocurred on the cricket field.

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 11:06 GMT

Outstanding as ever!! Loved the phrase Tendulkar vs. Statistical History.

Missed you a lot andy, hope you had a nice summer break. Lol me too in disbelief over england's success and climb to number one, they are really good at this moment are'nt they.

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 7:24 GMT

Welcome back Andy. I would suggest that in the future whenever you go on a richly deserved leaves kindly put a note of your return date coz every day I open the website anticipating your article on the England v India but was disappointed not to find one. Miss your article like anything. Anyway I guess even you are also now is an unusual position to praise this magnificent England team consistently and making fun of the opposing team which was not the case in the last 20-30 years.

No featured comments at the moment.

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 7:24 GMT

Welcome back Andy. I would suggest that in the future whenever you go on a richly deserved leaves kindly put a note of your return date coz every day I open the website anticipating your article on the England v India but was disappointed not to find one. Miss your article like anything. Anyway I guess even you are also now is an unusual position to praise this magnificent England team consistently and making fun of the opposing team which was not the case in the last 20-30 years.

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 7:53 GMT

Missed you a lot andy, hope you had a nice summer break. Lol me too in disbelief over england's success and climb to number one, they are really good at this moment are'nt they.

Outstanding as ever!! Loved the phrase Tendulkar vs. Statistical History.

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 11:14 GMT

Hallelujah! That was a particularly dry month and i believe i speak on behalf of all Cricinfo readers when i say that cricket is glad for the return of your original outlooks on events that ocurred or almost ocurred on the cricket field.

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 11:36 GMT

"a rest and recuperation period advised by my doctor to help adjust psychologically to the fact that England are now officially the universe’s leading Test Match cricket team"-Andy, I understand that the Bzergs of the planet Bleen have never lost a game of test cricket, and must be considered a contender for the title of best team. Characteristically, Indian fans have refused to recognise this feat on the grounds that the Bzergs have never played a series in India.

fanedlive
on September 16, 2011, 11:46 GMT

India lost fair n square. The games with D/L Method could have gone either way. Looking at india's record i dont think a team deserve to be called champions when the only matches they will are the ones played on their home ground.